Andy Shaw: Term limits on the agenda for Monday symposium

Sunday

Apr 6, 2014 at 1:08 AM

Fortunately, there’s no statutory limit on the number of years a watchdog organization can weigh the pros and cons of an issue like term limits for elected officials, so nearly five years after I joined the Better Government Association in 2009, we’re still weighing.

In fact, we’ve dusted off the scales and we’ll spend most of Monday weighing in on term limits once again at a symposium in Chicago.

Here’s the background:

A few months after I was hired by the BGA, one of our board members suggested making term limits our cause célèbre because it was an easy reform to explain, polling indicated strong support from a vast majority of Illinois voters fed up with rampant government corruption and dysfunction, and it could elevate the organization’s profile.

I had been a TV news political reporter in my previous life, and that left me with a healthy skepticism about the efficacy of term limits as a reform elixir, but I agreed to raise the issue at a subsequent BGA board meeting.

That produced a robust discussion about the possible benefits of mandatory political turnover — a regular influx of fresh faces, new ideas and selfless approaches to public service — and the potential downside of forcibly replacing effective veteran lawmakers with naïve rookies who would be dependent upon career lobbyists and other insiders for guidance.

Predictably, there was no consensus, so we agreed not to take sides. But we dedicated a 2010 BGA “Idea Forum” — the quarterly nonpartisan discussions we host on key public policy issues — to a mini-debate on term limits, featuring two former elected officials from Chicago.

It was lively, informative and — again, no surprise — ultimately inconclusive.

Since then, we’ve heard even louder calls for term limits from a restive electorate and seen new polls reaffirming its appeal. More than 70 percent are favorable.

Last fall we started planning a term limits symposium with our colleagues at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and the Union League Club of Chicago.

Now we’re good to go in Chicago on Monday, and it should be interesting.

The gubernatorial campaigns of Bruce Rauner and Pat Quinn are sending representatives to share their views, and we’ll hear from former two-term Gov. Jim Edgar. Several experts will discuss specifics, such as how term limits work in other states, if they’ve produced better government and possible scenarios here in Illinois.

We’ll post highlights of the symposium on our website, www.bettergov.org, where you also can find details about Monday’s event.

As you probably know, there’s a Rauner-backed petition drive aimed at placing a term limits referendum on the November ballot, and we’ll see where that goes.

Meanwhile, the CHANGE Illinois coalition is pushing an election reform agenda that would, among other things, let voters decide, also by referendum, whether to take some of the partisan politics out of legislative redistricting. Those efforts, along with a drive to downsize government bureaucracies — including the BGA’s “Smart Streamlining” initiative and Sangamon County’s efficiency commission — represent serious challenges to the status quo and business as usual.

With that in mind, the BGA will be in Springfield next month for a reception and an Idea Forum on streamlining. I’ll provide details in a future column.

Clearly, reform is on the front burner this year, and its warmth is promising.

Andy Shaw is president and CEO of the Better Government Association. He can be reached at ashaw@bettergov.org or 312-386-9097.